Babar Azam's Struggles Against England's Short-Ball Trap

On the flattest pitch of the series, with runs there for the taking and Pakistan desperate for a statement innings from their captain, Babar Azam walked straight back into the one plan England knew would work.

Short ball, deep fielders out, indecision. Again.

Pakistan’s batters finally showed some resistance in the second innings of the final Test, grinding their way past 400 on what looked like a road. It was the kind of surface where a world-class No. 4 should cash in, bat all day, and change the mood of an entire tour. Instead, the defining image was Babar, stuck on the crease, undone once more by England’s now-familiar short-ball ploy.

He had done the hard work. On 76, with Pakistan still 42 behind England’s imposing first-innings 453, the game needed its captain to dig in and turn a fluent fifty into the big hundred that has eluded him in red-ball cricket. Instead, Josh Tongue – who had already removed him for seven in the first innings – dragged him back into the same trap and took him out again.

On a pitch offering nothing to the quicks, it felt like a gift.

Hussain’s brutal verdict

The reaction was instant and unforgiving. This was not written off as a simple lapse or a rough patch. For many, it looked like something far more serious: a technical flaw that has burrowed into Babar’s mind and refuses to leave.

On commentary, former England captain Nasser Hussain laid it bare, contrasting Babar’s muddle with the clarity at the other end.

“You bowl short to Saud Shakeel, and he goes down straight away. You bowl short to Babar Azam, and he doesn’t know whether to pull, hook, or leave,” Hussain said. “At the moment, Saud Shakeel is giving him a masterclass.”

That comparison cut deep. Shakeel, calm and decisive against the bumper, made the plan look manageable. Babar, by contrast, looked trapped between options, caught in two minds every time the ball was banged in short. For a player of his stature, it was a damning visual.

Fans turn on their captain

Social media did the rest. Pakistan fans, already worn down by a poor series and their captain’s prolonged red-ball slump, did not hold back.

One supporter summed up the sense of inevitability around his dismissal: Babar, they wrote, “got trapped in the short ball plan and gifted his wicket after playing a fine knock…” Ten years of international experience, multiple innings against Tongue, and yet the same mistake, the same mode of dismissal.

“ANOTHER EMBARRASSING WAY TO GET OUT, BABAR AZAM. - Literally threw his wicket away,” another fan posted, frustration boiling over.

The theme repeated itself: this was not about talent, but about game awareness. “You’d have thought that Babar Azam would be too experienced to have repeatedly fallen into England’s short ball trap,” one fan tweeted, unable to process how England’s most basic red-ball tactic still seemed to surprise Pakistan’s premier batter.

There was also a sense of what might have been. On a surface described as the “flattest pitch of the year,” many believed Babar had an “easy hundred for the taking. And possibly more.” Instead of ending the series with a drought-breaking century, he walked off with another missed opportunity, another question mark.

The numbers added insult to injury. One fan pointed out that debutant Razatullah would finish the series with a better average than Babar, a statistic that underlined just how far below his own standards the captain has been operating.

A flaw that won’t go away

This is where the criticism bites hardest. At this stage of his career, Babar should recognise every cue of the short-ball trap: the fielders posted deep, the bowler going around the wicket or angling it into the body, the obviousness of the plan. Yet the moment the ball is dug in, his feet seem to lock, his options blur, and the dismissal feels almost pre-written.

Tongue’s repeated success against him only sharpens the focus. This is not a one-off weakness exposed by a once-in-a-generation quick. It is a pattern, and bowlers at this level do not ignore patterns.

As England close in on the modest 130 they need to win the third Test and complete a whitewash, Babar’s failure to anchor Pakistan’s innings looms large. On such a flat surface, his wicket was the one England most wanted and Pakistan could least afford to lose cheaply. They lost it anyway, in the most predictable way possible.

Until Babar confronts this short-ball issue head-on – technically, mentally, and tactically – opposition captains will keep setting the same field, barking the same plan, and waiting for the same mistake. The question now is not whether teams will test him there.

It’s how long Pakistan can afford for their captain not to have an answer.